Agona West elects Presiding Member

A four-term Assembly Member of the Agona West Municipal Assembly, Mr Frank Kwesi Abban, has been elected the new Presiding Member (PM) for the assembly for a two-year term.

Mr Abban, 42, the Assembly Member for the Abora Electoral Area in Agona Nyakrom, has occupied that position for the past 16 years.

He was challenged by Mr Alhassan Abubakar, a former Assembly Member for Old Zongo in Agona Swedru, who is currently a government appointee, and Mr Joseph Akyea Addo, the Assembly Member for Nsusososo, also a suburb of Agona Swedru.

However, before voting could start, Mr Akyea Addo stepped down, leaving the two in the race. Per the membership of the 46-member assembly, for one to be elected PM, the individual should garner 31 votes, representing two-thirds majority of the votes.

However, at the end of the first round of voting held last Wednesday at the Swedru Town Hall and supervised by officials of the Electoral Commission, led by the Agona Municipal Electoral Director, Mr Annobil Forson, Mr Abban polled 28 votes, while Mr Abubakar managed only 15 votes.

Maiden address

Since none of the two candidates was able to secure the 31 votes, it led to a second round of voting, after which Mr Abban secured 31 votes, whereas Alhassan Abubakar had only 12 votes.

Addressing the meeting after he was sworn in, Mr Abban thanked the assembly members for the honour done him by electing him as the PM of the municipality for the next two years.

He stated that since entering the assembly in 2002, he had acquired a lot of experience which would be brought to bear to facilitate the growth and development of the assembly for the benefit of the people.

He pledged to operate an open-door administration and ensure togetherness, particularly with assembly members and management of the assembly so that the right policies and programmes, as well as decisions that would inure to the benefit of the municipality, would be taken.

Mr Abban, therefore, called on the assembly members to put the election behind them, noting that: “Now that the election is over, let us team up and work towards the progress of the municipality.”

MCE

The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Agona West, Mrs Justina Marigold Assan, thanked the assembly members for electing a PM to steer the affairs of the assembly since the absence of a PM could have affected the smooth administration of the assembly.

She bemoaned factionalism among the assembly members and, therefore, called on them to put an end to such divisions in the ultimate interest of the municipality.